The White Lady of Bolling Hall

The White Lady of Bolling Hall By Jessie Middleton © 2007by http://www.HorrorMasters.com

The recent marriage of President Wilson and Mrs. Gait (née Edith Boiling) has aroused fresh interest in the ghost story of Boiling Hall, Bradford, which is the ancestral home of the bride, and will no doubt be the Mecca of all good Americans on tour when they visit this country in days to come. Rosamund Boiling, who owned the estate in the sixteenth century, married Sir Richard Tempest in 1502, and brought him the Manor house as part of her dowry, and for generations the Tempests held sway there, the last of them being a desperate gambler, who finally staked and lost Boiling and the adjoining lands at cards. During the deal that was to have such momentous results, Tempest was heard to exclaim: “Now ace, deuce and tray, Or farewell Bolling Hall for ever and aye!” It is not surprising that Tempest died in the King’s Bench in 1658, where he was imprisoned for debt, and his ghost is said to haunt the ghost-chamber at Boiling, which is a beautiful old room in which are portraits of Sir Richard Tempest and Rosamund Boiling, his wife, painted on panels. The most famous ghost story of Boiling Hall, however, does not deal with the reckless gambler, Tempest, but with an episode of the Civil War. An old writer, who was himself in Bradford at the time, tells the story in the course of his description of the horrors of the siege: “In the meantime the enemy (the Earl of Newcastle and the Royalists) took the opportunity of a parley to remove their cannon, and brought them nearer the town and fixed them on a certain place called Goodman’s End, directly against the heart of the town and surrounding us on every side with horse and foot, so it was impossible for a single person to escape. Nor could the troops within the town act on the defensive for want of ammunition, which they had lost in their last defeat at Adwalton; nor had they a single match, but such as were made of twisted cords dipped in oil. “Oh, that dreadful and never-to-be-forgotten night, which was mostly spent in firing those deadly engines upon us, so that the blaze issuing therefrom appeared like lightning from Heaven, the elements being, as it were, on fire, and the loud roaring of the cannon resembling the mighty thunders of the sky! This same night Sir Thomas Fairfax and the forces in his command cut their way through the besiegers and escaped from the town, thus leaving it more utterly at the Royalists’ mercy. “Now, reader, here stop—stop for a moment— pause and suppose thyself in the like dilemma. Words cannot express, thoughts cannot imagine, nay, art itself is not able to point out the calamities and woeful distresses with which we were now overwhelmed withal! Every countenance was spread with sorrow; every house was overwhelmed with grief; husbands lamenting over their families; women wringing their hands in despair;

children shrieking, crying and clinging to their parents. Death in all his dreadful forms and frightful aspects stalking in every street and every corner. In short, horror, despair, and destruction united their efforts to spread devastation and complete our ruin. “What are all our former calamities in comparison with these? Before, there were some glimmering hopes of mercy from the enemy, but now they are fled—fled in every appearance. Our foes were exasperated with the opposition they had met with from us, but especially the cruel death by which the Earl of Newport’s son fell by our unwary townsmen. For behold! immediately orders were issued out to the soldiers by the Earl of Newcastle, their commander, that the next morning they should put to the sword every man, woman, and child, without regard to age, sex, or distinction whatsoever. “The night before the sentence was to be carried out the Earl of Newcastle was sleeping at Boiling, or Bowling, Hall. In the midst of the night a lady, clad in white, gauzy garments from head to foot, entered the Earl’s bedroom, several times pulled the clothes from his bed, and then, when he was thoroughly aroused and trembling with fear, cried out with a lamentable voice, ‘Pity poor Bradford Pity poor Bradford!’ and disappeared. “How far this was true I submit it to others to determine. But this much I must affirm— that the hand of Providence never more conspicuously appeared in our favour, for lo! immediately the Earl countermanded the former order, and forbade the death of any person whatsoever, except only such as made resistance. “Thus, from a state of anguish and despair, we, who were but just ready to be swallowed up, by the wonderful providence of the Almighty were reprieved as criminals from the rack. See what a surprising change immediately takes place: the countenances of those who were but just before overspread with horror and despair began in some measure to resume their former gaiety and cheerfulness—a general joy and gladness diffused itself through every breast; the hearts of those who were crc now overwhelmed with sorrow are now big with praise and thanksgiving to God for the wonderful and surprising deliverance brought about in their favour.”